A while ago I got a Fuji X-E1 with kit lens (18-55 zoom, great combo) and a bit later the Samyang 8mm fisheye. The Samyang is a fun lens and it's nice to have around. The idea behind getting it was also to try my hand at some full spherical panoramas, but so far, I only did a few test panos, which came out not too bad. To be more flexible on the wide end, I'm also eying the Fuji 14mm (for general shooting, not panos).

Now, Fuji is slated to come out with a 10-24mm super-wide zoom early next year and this looks very tempting. So I'm wondering, how the zoom at the 10mm end will compare to the 8mm Samyang in terms of shooting pattern and its suitability for full spherical panoramas (the X-E1 has an APS-sized sensor)? Can I get away with e.g. 8 shots around at +30 and -30deg (just wildly guessing here)?

Just looking for opinions, if you'd go for the Samyang 8mm and the 14mm or ditch the Samyang and get the - more versatile - 10-24 zoom?

I have the 8mm and it is a great lens. I also have the 14mm which as you know is also a great lens. There will be a significant difference in the number of images required to stitch a rectilinear 10mm image from the 10-24 or with the 14mm vs an 8mm fish eye. So for shooting 360 degree spherical panoramas, the 8mm will be better unless you want quite high resolution spheres. I use a gigapan which is terrible for spheres but I have done some on the 10-22mm and it shoots 20 images for a sphere versus 6 using the 8mm done on my manual pano head. You can shoot a sphere with less than 20 images @ 10mm if done manually or with a smart head but you won't get anywhere near shooting it in 6 as you would with the fish eye.

I guess it also depends on what other lenses you have and what you want to shoot. I have a canon 10-22mm that I use on my X-E2 and it has poor flare performance and worse CA performance than the 14mm and is much bigger. But for pure sharpness, its actually nearly on par at 14mm to the fuji prime. I would expect the Fuji 10-24mm to be very good and comparable in sharpness to the 14mm. It has image stabilisation so unless the flare performance is terrible, I would say it should be better all round than the 14mm for panos. But I wouldn't get rid of the 8mm as it is ideal for quick spheres.